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Oliver Stone Leaves Martin Luther King Jr. Film, Complains on Twitter

After learning last fall that director Oliver Stone was slated to take on a biopic about famed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., with Jamie Foxx taking the lead, the Wall Street and JFK director has fallen away from the project due to creative difference. Stone announced his falling out with the project on Twitter, and proceeded to explain why producers didn't want to go with his extensive rewrite of the script. And it turns out the reasoning seems to be that with the involvement of King's family on the film, they're trying to go with a more glossy version of the icon's life, which is why they didn't go with Paul Greengrass' plan for a "warts and all" portrayal in his stalled project Memphis. Now Stone is in the same boat. Read on!

Here's the full collection of tweets that Stone posted on Twitter yesterday ranting about the MLK project:

Sad news. My MLK project involvement has ended. I did an extensive rewrite of the script, but the producers won’t go with it.

While Stone's version of the truth can be a little whacked out when it comes to certain historical events, it's widely known that Martin Luther King Jr. had flaws of his own, and as Stone indicates in his tweets, was not a saint. Obviously, King's family wants to keep the man's reputation as an iconic leader and influential figure, but an honest portrayal of the man would only strengthen that, rather than trying to make him out to be some sort of perfect hero. Anyway, we're a little bummed that Stone won't get to tackle the project, but we're moreso concerned with how this project will play out when another director is found. Thoughts?

Well that didn't come off as pretentious at all...
Oh well it's not like he even makes good movies anymore

the_situasian

It does come off a bit pretentious, but that's nothing new from Stone at this point, and he does raise a valid argument. We just heard a couple months ago about Sasha Baron Cohen leaving that Freddie Mercury biopic because of the same reasons.

Internet Reality

but that doesn't make him wrong

Reznik

Is it pretentious to tell the truth?

DaveLister_JMC

Based on his more recent output, Stone is way overrated. His Alexander the Great film was a complete disaster. Having been around the movie business for so long, and knowing you're only as good as your last screw-up, I'm surprised that Stone is so shocked by this development.

http://heapstoblowyoudown.wordpress.com/ X-MAN

I want Jack NIcholsonI want Jack NIcholson playing MLK playing MLK

iamNotLegend

that would be interesting...

Bo

People might look up the word pretentious to make sure they are using it accordingly. As one stated below Stone might be pretentious, but he has a valid point. One can't be pretentious and valid at the same time. Come on, guys. Stone is an intelligent, well read guy who makes interesting films. You might like them, you might not. He might be arrogant, I don't know. I don't care. Those are strange labels to place on someone who might be a heck of a lot smarter than you'll ever be. But pretentious and pretense all point towards falseness, and that Stone ain't. He has the courage of his convictions and puts them out there for the world to see. If ya don't respect that then you do have a problem. You don't have to like him or his views, but can't you respect him for having the courage thru-out the years to state them? And in an artistic fashion to boot? Having said all that, there are many of Stone's works I haven't been able to like. Hated The Doors, disliked Born on the Fourth July (although that might have been due to Cruise's involvement), Alexander misfired. Still, Salvador, Platoon, even the wacky U-Turn are powerful and interesting films. In my humble opinion, of course.

Ehsan Davodi

This guy is not right guy. He ruin Great Alexander. Spike Lee did outstanding job with Malkom X. Denzel Washingon as Luther.

iamNotLegend

hope he releases his script

T. Hakeem

Sucks that he seems to have opposition from the very groups that should want to see this made! While a little different in circumstance, its one of the successful things about 'Mandela'. It deals reasonably well with some of his lesser known radical period and his somewhat fractious family life. Thankfully the Mandela estate approved ALL of it to try and ensure that a more well-rounded view of Madiba was presented. Some of MLKs marital issues are well known and well documented (among other things), surely the caretakers of the estate and (as Stone puts it) the 'respectable' black community would want to see his ENTIRE character put to screen.
Was really looking forward to this... I just hope that its taken up by a director and creative team who want to show people the man as well as the figurehead. The estate have some thinking to do if they want a good calibre film-maker to bring this to life.

Rick

Don't see how some of the relatively bad things that MLK did tarnish his legacy. Does the fact that he cheated on his wife change what he did for civil rights in any way? No, it doesn't. He was a great man who had some dark secrets and did some shady things. Who doesn't? Gandhi was a racist, pedophile, and was a huge supporter of the oppressive caste system. That's a whole lot worse than what MLK did, but that doesn't change the fact that Gandhi did some great things. Aristotle was misogynistic and supported slavery. MLK looks tame compared to those two.

IT OUT IT 22

STONE might better spend his time coming
clean on the matter of the Globalist USURY---and EUGENICS link.
He might even take up the cause of calling out
Hollywood's sellout to RED China and theri decades
of delivering predictive programming for
the CAP-stone EUGENICS agenda.
He might even consider directing the --complete--
picture, epic treatment of the now awesomely relevant
------------------------KOREAN WAR------------------------.
Otherwise, STONE remains a '70's show' ideological hack.
--------Sort of a SON of WALL STREET.

movie buff

The people that manage the Martin Luther King estate have read other versions of the script for the movie. If its going to be done big, then it will be better done tastefully. Warner Brothers and Steven Spielberg should do the right thing and go with the script by Patrix Theatrix of Atlanta, Georgia and choose another talented
director

http://www.wain.tv Charles Micheaux

Paul Greengrass wrote a script that was utter TRASH; did STONE think for one minute he could write a TRASH script too?
Dr. King's legacy should not be something White Movie directors should play with.
The WRATH they will feel from the nation will be eternal.
As rain falls from the sky the MLK legacy will be protected; stone & greengrass can smoke all the weed they want, the reality is nobody's interested in their TRASH.